Based on our previous work, published in Research Policy in 1999 (Kumaresan, Miyazaki) we identified the phenomenon of innovation trajectory shift occurring in robotics, as focus shifted from manufacturing to non-manufacturing applications. As innovation trajectory changes from a streamlined to a complex type, forming a virtuous loop between science, technology and the market becomes difficult so that JSRPIM's role becomes more valuable. How innovations can be stimulated from micro to macro level is a challenging issue, requiring a close linkage between industry, academia and policymakers.

The committee to discuss the future activities was established 2 years ago by JSRPIM, to do strategic planning for the society, based on the needs of the members. We identified the problems JSRPIM faces, including ①declining membership especially of young members and corporate members, ②inadequate information provision and information sharing ③journal, and ④internationalization. Having analyzed the findings from the previous questionnaire, 5 WGs (①International, ②Innovation of ‘Ba', ③Future issues, ④Human resources, ⑤Policy concerns), were established. We tried to strengthen the functions of public relations, improved JSRPIM's website and we have been undergoing various reforms. The International WG organized an International workshop inviting 3 speakers from overseas to discuss innovation policies in leading countries. SKYPE was used, allowing regional members to participate. JSRPIM plans to carry out the reforms in 3 stages, ①improve information sharing, ②provide information to a wide audience, and ③use Twitter to increase membership. JSRPIM will continue to evolve, by carrying out incremental innovations in order to overcome the current difficult situation. To achieve a bright future, we would like to ask members for their understanding and cooperation.

Former Chair (2016–2017)

With the strengthening of CO₂ regulation, Volume of sales in the EV market in US and China is accelerating.

The purpose of this special reports is to examine the impact and change of EV in China, US and Japan. We discusses on various subjects around EV, which is a radical innovation, to clarify the present situation and to examine the essence of EV innovation. The main themes are the market trends and impacts resulting from the changes of policy, technological innovation and ecosystem, in China, US, and Japan.

This paper discusses the issues related to the trend and market development in EV. How do we understand this EV boom? We will concentrate on the following issues: (1) Why did China's industrial policy shift from a gasoline vehicle to EV? (2) What factors cause that change? (3) Why did Japan lag behind China in EV?

China, which has a large population and a growing middle class, is likely to become a leading player in the future. But, the Chinese government faces many problems.The problems are serious air pollution problem, import natural energy, industrial competitiveness, and sustainable economic growth, and so on. To solve the problems, The Chinese government is implementing industry policy focused on EV, especially battery EV. On the other hand, the characteristics of Japanese automobile market have the late installation of EV charging infrastructure, a long-time consumption, and relatively small market, and so on. These are the reasons why Japan (or Japanese maker) is slower than China (or Chinese maker) in the early stage of EV diffusion.

In conclusion, this stage is not EV boom but the take-off of EV in the innovation diffusion process. Given the uniqueness of the Chinese market, we should observe the market with the focus on sales rather than the supply rate. Also, we should pay more attention to the role of government as a resource allocation coordinator in the transition period of an industrial ecosystem.

China has been the largest vehicle producer and consumer country in the world nowadays. In order to face environmental crisis and keep environmental sustainability, China is switching its national strategy direction of new energy vehicle industry from expand gasoline vehicle to develop electric and plug-in hybrid electric vehicle. This paper described the present condition of new energy vehicle industry in China and discussed the significant new energy vehicle industry policy mechanism changes in the form of technical standards, state subsidies and infrastructure construction. From 1991 to 2000 was the embryonic stage of technological research in China, focused on electric vehicle and components. During 2001 to 2009, "three vertical and three horizontal" was the main technological innovation strategy. Since 2009, technological develop focus was back to electric vehicle and put forward progress of the market.

In this paper we introduced a case of Proterra, an electric bus manufacturer in Silicon Valley, California. Through the case study, we could clarify the different behavior of Proterra which is an EV maker from inception versus the behavior of fossil fuel vehicle manufacturers that begun to offer EVs. Also we could show the specific characteristics of commercial vehicles that could allow it to transition to EVs more rapidly than the passenger vehicle market. We also explained the effects of Proterra being located in Silicon Valley. Finally we suggested the future scenarios of the EV market.

This paper argued strategies to address uncertainties incurred by the electrification of automotive powertrains. We employed a real option perspective and used event trees to describe the transitions of powertrains of Toyota, Nissan, and Volkswagen. Toyota's product strategy has the flexibility to switch to plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and battery electric vehicles (BEVs) by adding or withdrawing relevant components to/from hybrid electric vehicles (HEVs). However, its option value will decrease when environmental regulations delist HEVs from the category of zero-emission vehicles. Nissan isolated market uncertainties by developing a BEV with a dedicated platform, which in turn limited creating derivative products. VW mitigated the uncertainties by proactively corresponding its product strategy to technical standards and environmental regulations. Their modular platform (MQB) enabled VW to attain flexibility to develop various electrified vehicles. However, possible obsolescence of the design rule of the product architecture will undermine the option value of MQB.

In this paper, we describe an inter-industrial fusion in the phase of emerging EV market through the transformation of supplier-system in auto industry. Particularly, we discuss the process that electronics, software, material industries have been installed into auto industry.

Analyzing this issue, we indicated inter-industrial fusion has begun long before emerging EV market. Moreover, we also pointed some candidates which aim to behave a "System Integrator" in auto industry, instead of auto makers. For instance, they might be newcomers from other industry and/or foreign auto-parts suppliers, particularly German companies like Bosch, Continental and so on. Thus, it is a difficult situation for almost all Japanese suppliers because they have not experienced for developing and producing critical components of EV and also supplying a series of auto-parts as an organic system so far.

About the regional science and technology policy which is one of the most important policy in Japan, many policy measures are taken by the 5th phase of the science & technology basic plan and the comprehensive strategy on science, technology and innovation decided by every fiscal year.

In this article, we reviewed the transition from regional S & T policy to regional science, technology and innovation policy consist of 4 phases from the period before S & T basic law up to the 5th phase of the S & T basic plan.

As a result, the development of policies such as the science park construction, the promotion of regional S & T, expansion and development growth of the regional science, technology and innovation system, and the new output strategy aiming at global business after temporary stagnation by regime change became clear.